“JESUS was a refugee. If He came to earth today, He’d be cast out by anti-refugee policies! As a Christian, are you okay with that?”

This is a myth. Jesus was NOT a refugee. Ever. He also was not an illegal immigrant. Unfortunately, someone picked up on this untrue story a while back and started blasting it throughout Christendom. In fact, one family I know wanted to celebrate Christmas Eve last year at their church. Instead of celebrating the wonderful birth of Jesus, their pastor showed a rather lengthy film (pro-Palestinian) on how unwelcoming “Jesus the Refugee” would find Israel today. “Nothing but a wall would welcome him.” Hmmm…. that and the fact that Palestinian-occupied Bethlehem doesn’t allow Jews inside the city. Israel gave Bethlehem to the Palestinians in 1995.

If Jesus wasn’t a refugee, what was He? What really happened? Joseph and Mary were living in Nazareth. Nazareth is a city in Israel. The Roman Caesar, whose armies occupied and controlled Israel, called a census and required all Israeli citizens to return to their home city for a head count. Registering citizenship – wow! That’s a good idea.

Joseph and Mary (pregnant with Jesus) OBEYED the law and returned to Joseph’s ancestral home – Bethlehem. When they arrived there, all the hotel rooms were taken because of the census. The city was overflowing with non-residents. That’s how they ended up in the stable. Not illegals. Not refugees. Not homeless. Their home was in Nazareth.

Herod (the Jewish puppet king of the Romans) went crazy after hearing that the Messiah was born (The Three Wise Men leaked it) and demanded all males, two years old and under, be killed in and around Bethlehem. An angel warned Joseph in a dream of the danger telling him to take Mary and the baby to Egypt (a distance of about 250 miles). Here’s an important thing to focus on: EGYPT WAS PART OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Octavius—remember these folks? Rome had occupied Egypt for over 60 years before Christ’s birth). This is a very important piece of information: tradesmen (like the carpenter Joseph), were allowed to travel within the Roman Empire – as it was ONE NATION UNDER CAESAR. For Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt was the equivalent today of moving from Dallas to Oklahoma City – not illegal; not prohibited; not an immigration issue.

The use of the narrative that Jesus was a refugee is not only false, it is manipulative. It is the language of well-meaning Christians who want to fight for a cause, but are not well-informed and obviously not grounded in biblical facts.

Here’s where the story of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph falls apart for the “Jesus Was a Refugee” folks: After some time (scholars say between four and eight years), Joseph took his family back to Nazareth. That’s right. They returned to the land of their birth and to the home of Joseph where Jesus grew up. This is important for those people who want to compare Jesus to DACA Dreamers – Jesus and HIS family went back home.

So, the BIG question we have to ask ourselves as followers of Jesus (and the big question we need to be prepared to answer) is, “How do we respond to illegal aliens in our nation?” That’s Part III. Peace.

2 users Responded In This Post

Wow! That is well said. Actually, studying what the Bible says in complete detail is very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to read our Father’s book and putting this issue in context. I know your life and am proud to get these insights clarified by a person who is following the Lord Jesus.